Our adventure in exploring alternative treatments for a senior dog continues to be exciting. When we posted last week, Rocko was at three good days after treatment, compared to two good days from his first visit.
This week we made it to day four. Saturday afternoon he started to go back down, but the outcome was different this time. Last week I thought he had a stomach ache and didn’t treat his pain. As soon as I saw him begin to exhibit the pain behaviors, wrinkling his forehead, I increased his pain medication (as always, under the supervision of our vet, Dr Habig). This kept it from getting worse and held him stable until our appointment Monday.
I didn’t just increase his pain meds, I also tried a lot of things to make him feel better. I have a small microwavable herbal pillow we call the “warmie”, he didn’t want that. Different types of massage weren’t helping. Through this process I have learned one very valuable tool in gauging how Rocko is feeling – by resting my fingers lightly on his forehead. If he is uncomfortable, I can feel a twitching, if he’s happy his skin is still. Much to my surprise, he wanted to be brushed. Yes, the dog who hates to be brushed actually wanted me to brush him. It started when I found a spot that needed brushing (he has a really thick undercoat), when I brushed it out he wagged his tail and smiled so I just kept going. I brushed him for at least an hour and a half Saturday and Sunday. Double bonus – it made him feel better and his coat looks beautiful.
Monday we were off to our next visit with Dr Boswell. Another odd thing happened during the car trip. When Rocko was young we had a mini-van so he never experienced the fun of the open window and wind. By the time we got another vehicle, he just wasn’t into it. This time he sat up in the seat looking out the window for at least half the trip. He didn’t react to seeing dogs walking down the road or stopping at a light next to someone who was looking at him, but I can’t wait until we pull up next to a car with another dog in it.
We took his blankie, Dr Boswell agreed that was a good idea to help him relax. It took a couple minutes to get him to settle down, while we were doing that Dr Boswell took a look at his x-rays. As expected, he has a lot of age-related spinal degeneration. To explain it in layman’s terms, if you look at an x-ray of the spine you should see each of the vertebrae with a consistent equal space between each one. As you age, the discs between the vertebrae wear out. Those are the ones you see that look like they are touching each other. All of the nerves in your body thread from your spinal cord out between those gaps, and when one closes up it pinches the nerves – causing pain. Each space corresponds to an area of pain – for example, pinched nerves in your lower back could cause shooting pain down your leg. To our surprise, along with his lower back Rocko also has some issues with his thoracic area between his shoulder blades.
Dr Boswell worked on Rocko’s back up through his neck, then down his back legs a little. He was very comfortable while this was going on. Every now and then we could tell when she hit a spot where he had issues because he’d just turn his head towards her just a little.
I swear, when we were done Rocko wanted to give her a kiss. This is a pretty scary thought since his attitude runs more towards causing carnage and he has been known to fake a tail wag until his intended target was within reach. I’m not sure how we’re going to handle this one.
I know the last couple of weeks our posts have been really long, but there’s a lot going on and while I’m keeping all of our friends up to date on how Rocko is doing, I also think of the person who lands here looking for answers on treating pain in their senior dog.
Tuesday when I got home from work Rocko was waiting at the door, tail wagging and bouncing. When he was younger he would jump up on me when I came home and he still has this kind-of-jump he tries when he’s feeling good. This is where I slipped up. I played with him for a minute, fixed his dinner and later in the evening I noticed he was a little bummed out that I wasn’t paying attention to him. I’m not used to him having energy and he really could have used some more acknowledgement of how good he was doing. I need to check with Dr Boswell to find out what is an appropriate level of activity. I don’t want him getting a burst of energy and sliding backwards because he does too much, but he should be able to show off his new agility.
Wednesday morning, I think Rocko and I both woke up with an attitude. We got in an argument over taking his medicine. He wanted his food so he kept spitting out his medicine. I had to leave for work, I had dog food and slobber all over my hands, and I lost my temper and hollered at him. Sure, he took it then, but I had to leave and I felt bad about it all day.
Before I went home that afternoon I made a trip to Feeder’s Supply. I’ve been adding Wellness 95% meat canned food to Rocko’s dry food and I also mix his pills in a teaspoon of it. This time I got an entirely different kind, Wellness Core grain free canned food in turkey flavor. I continued to mix the 95% meat in his food and used the turkey flavor just for his medicine so he knows the difference. It seems to be working because we haven’t had a medicine stand-off since then. Thank goodness.
I also made another change – this was a much bigger one for me. I don’t wear makeup or fix my hair every day because that’s five or ten minutes of extra sleep I would miss, but it was time to start getting up earlier so we we’re not under a time crunch. I started setting the alarm for a half hour earlier.
Dr Boswell had also recommended the use of a laser pointer to do therapy at home, five minutes twice a day. I picked one up at Staples for around $22. Now that I’ve tried it I still have a lot of questions to ask about how to do it right, so I’ll share more about that next week. In an attempt to make mornings a little easier on Rocko, I started doing it before he has to make the big trip up the stairs, hoping it would ease some of the stiffness from just waking up. I wish he’d sleep in a bed or on his blankets, but he likes to sleep on the floor. I can only imagine what those first movements of the day feel like.
I’m not sure if it is helping, I can’t tell if Rocko likes it or if he’s just happy to have uninterrupted time with me. I know that I’m more relaxed since I’m not rushing to get out the door and he can take an extra couple minutes to go upstairs, so either way we’re accomplishing the goal of happier mornings.
Right now we’re nearing the end of day four and still doing good. The goal is to increase the length of time that Rocko feels good until we’re on a monthly maintenance schedule. We go back Monday.
Here’s hoping we continue on the uphill climb to feeling good in the life of a senior dog.
Almost got a smile . . . Rocko, October 28, 2011